


Mark II

by paperclipbitch



Category: Eureka, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Crossovering Exchange, Family, Gen, SHIELD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-28
Updated: 2015-08-28
Packaged: 2018-04-17 14:46:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4670651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperclipbitch/pseuds/paperclipbitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Why does SHIELD have an interest in whether a middle-of-nowhere town has a sheriff?” Jack asked, waiting for the other shoe to drop.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mark II

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tarlan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/gifts).



> Written for **Tarlan** for the **crossovering** exchange, who said that Jack, Nathan and Tony were their favourites!
> 
> There's some timeline handwaving in this, in that I've left out the collapse of SHIELD after Cap 2, but I'm sure you can all figure things out. I had fun with this; I'd like to try and remember to write more in this 'verse!

The first mistake was letting Nathan keep the suit.

Well. Jack would _like_ that to be true; in reality, various mistakes probably numbered in triple figures by that point.

-

The Carter name is one that’s always dogged Jack; it was probably inevitable, joining the organisation that his grandmother set up. He’d held out as long as he could before joining SHIELD, but clearly a love of classified and utterly insane adventures was in the blood, because all Nick Fury did when Jack asked for a job was roll his eye and say: _“we’ve saved you a spot”_. 

SHIELD then did what it did to everyone: took over his life, wrecked his marriage, stripped him of the opportunity to watch his daughter grow up, and otherwise left him barely setting foot in the real world. It wasn’t until Zoe was sixteen, freshly arrested and angry as all hell, that Jack realised he was going to need to make some changes to his life. He’d pulled some strings to get Zoe bailed with a minimum of criminal charges, but if he wanted to be a more active part of her life – if she was willing to _let_ him be a more active part of her life – then being a field agent wasn’t going to be an option anymore.

Jack had applied for a desk position, and been called in for a meeting with Coulson. He had a whole speech planned, about how he wanted to be there for his family, better late than never, and a steadier work environment and more regular working hours might help him achieve that, until Coulson handed him a file labelled _Eureka_ and smiled. It was something close to a real smile, though with that crooked curl to the edges that said SHIELD was probably hiding a few tricks up its sleeve.

“It’s a small town,” Coulson explained, “but there’s a great school, plenty of good influences for Zoe. They’re in need of a sheriff, and you’ve got a background in law enforcement.”

“Why does SHIELD have an interest in whether a middle-of-nowhere town has a sheriff?” Jack asked, waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

Coulson smirked. “That’s where the file comes in.”

Jack flipped it open, and was met with a photograph on the first page: Howard Stark, Albert Einstein, and a vaguely familiar-looking guy in a fedora, standing next to a cheaply-painted sign saying: _Welcome To Camp Eureka_.

“Ah,” he said.

-

Even after two years living in Eureka, which is about as ordinary as a small town requiring level five clearance to even _know_ about can be – basically: not very much – Jack still has the capacity to be surprised. He’d kind of thought SHIELD had knocked that out of him years ago, but that was before he moved into a place full of scientists, engineers, and all-round geniuses who just can’t stop tinkering with the world around them. Most of them are on the payroll of Global Dynamics, which is probably second only to Stark Industries in terms of the utterly crazy stuff it produces, and those that aren’t freelance for SHIELD. It’s like living in the engineering labs of SHIELD, with just as much chance of accidentally getting blown up. Maybe higher chances.

Fury and Coulson had let Jack get settled – unpacking his stuff into the sentient bunker its creator assured him _probably_ wasn’t homicidal, uprooting Zoe and enrolling her in school – still believing that he was just there to herd scientists around like the proverbial cats; then the new head of Global Dynamics turned up and he was Howard Stark’s nephew. Jack left a number of colourful, angry voicemails that were never replied to; he wasn’t really expecting anything different.

Nathan’s proven himself a Stark in every way possible, from the ego to the glittering public profile to the tinkering with shit Jack is pretty sure shouldn’t be tinkered with. He’s splashed across fewer magazines and gossip websites than his cousin Tony is, but that’s possibly a lack of opportunity, given that Eureka is still a classified secret, and his work with it doubly so.

Outside of their little town, the world starts to discover the existence of superheroes, digs Captain America out of the ice, gets invaded by aliens – several times – and watches as Tony Stark flies around the world in a home-built robot suit that shoots missiles and seems to make just as much mess as he clears up. Jack keeps his head down, especially when his grandmother’s name is thrown back into the media in conjunction with Steve Rogers. His cousin Sharon calls him over a weekend, sounding vaguely hysterical and telling him to be grateful that at least he no longer works within the main SHIELD organisation anymore, she’s exhausted with avoiding answering questions.

It’s not that the citizens of Eureka haven’t brought it up a few times, but Jack’s background files are protected by SHIELD, and he just played dumb ( _“you mean that woman from the movies?”_ ). He suspects Jo has seen through it by now, but he seems to be mostly getting away with it.

Maybe Jack’s been getting complacent, used to the kind of everyday weirdness that a town full of genius scientists who don’t know when to stop can create, but he’s not at all prepared for the package that shows up at GD. At _all_.

-

It’s a big box, taller than Jack and wide as maybe three of him; it’s made of shiny metal and there’s a complicated-looking electronic lock on it. It sets off lots of warning bells in his head, a whole array of red flags.

Zane’s squinting at a tablet, while Fargo’s got some kind of… scanner – Jack’s given up even trying to keep up with the level of technology they have here – and Nathan’s poking at the fancy lock. Jack’s pretty sure he shouldn’t be trying to do that, but Nathan looks tired, like he’s been doing this a while, tie loosened and collar undone.

“Unless you’ve got a crowbar in your jeep, Sheriff, there’s not much you can do here,” he says.

“Allison called me,” Jack replies. “Apparently, giant unexplained boxes showing up is something that needs looking into.”

Something about the box is nagging a memory, but he’s not sure what it is; either way, he’s pretty sure that he’s not going to like whatever happens when Nathan finally gets inside. And Nathan _will_ get inside: he’s wearing that dogged determined expression he gets whenever he’s going to see a project through to the end, no matter what.

“I guess FedEx didn’t leave a note?” Jack asks, but the others ignore him, which is pretty much par for the course by now.

“Can you get Jo to bring over something explosive?” Zane suggests, looking up. “Pretty sure she’s got something that can break this open.”

Jack’s not sure how long they’ve been trying to get into the box; Allison called him over when she found the three of them intent on breaking into it, despite the fact it had turned up overnight and with no notes or information of any kind, or, apparently, any kind of courier service. Jack’s pretty sure the whole thing needs to be quarantined and maybe irradiated and he should put in a call to Coulson or someone, but another look at Nathan tells him he’ll probably need to tase him to get him away from it.

Nathan knows something about the box that he isn’t saying, that he hasn’t told Fargo or Zane.

“Have you called Henry?” Jack asks, bowing to the inevitable.

-

It takes two days. Two days of controlled explosions, mathematical formulae that go right over Jack’s head, a lot of coffee and even more swearing. Jack goes home eventually, to Zoe and what she’s been doing at school today and a _really_ good cheeseburger care of Vincent, and when he gets back in the morning it’s clear that Nathan hasn’t moved, hasn’t gone anywhere, eyes wild and hair wilder, stripped down to a t-shirt and looking frustrated.

He’s pretty sure that Nathan knows something about this box that he hasn’t mentioned to anyone else.

It’s late on the second day and Jack is running out of excuses to be here; he’s pretty sure as a SHIELD agent, he can’t go anywhere, but technically as sheriff he has things to be getting on with, and Jo is sounding frustrated at what she sees as him shirking work. He can’t exactly help the guys here, either, and there’s a little nagging voice in the back of his head telling him he really should tell SHIELD what’s happening here, or what _could_ be happening here.

And then Nathan makes a little triumphant sound and steps back, away from the panel of the lock, and the entire front of the box cracks open with a pneumatic hiss. It’s ridiculously melodramatic, but any thoughts Jack has about rolling his eyes are halted when he sees what’s inside.

It’s a metal suit – more specifically, a metal Iron Man suit, arc reactor shining in the chest, and the only thing to ruin the effect is a bright yellow Post-It stuck onto the helmet. Nathan reaches up, his hand not quite steady, and pulls it off.

“Having a go at keeping my promises,” he reads aloud, “your turn now.”

 _I should call Fury right now_ , Jack thinks, and doesn’t move.

-

Nathan swears them all to secrecy, but scientists are worse gossips than anyone, and there are times when Eureka is leakier than a sieve, which means that Vincent knows by lunchtime the next day, and everyone else does by dinner. Zoe is bubbling with questions and what her classmates have been saying, while Jack resolutely avoids direct answers and thinks fondly of the beer he has in the fridge he has at home, and how he needs at least three. Jack’s been trying to keep his life with SHIELD as separate from his life with Zoe as he can, but he gets the feeling that sooner or later they’re going to collide; she’s a smart kid, and she’ll put it all together.

Over at the counter, Fargo is wearing a Captain America t-shirt and speaking almost too fast for Jack to follow, while Vincent responds equally excitedly; Jack’s not sure this is all going to end well, but there are worse things that can happen than the town starting an Avengers fanclub. He was kind of surprised they didn’t have one already.

“Is Nathan going to become an Avenger now?” Zoe asks, tugging Jack’s attention back to her again. “Is he just going to… pick up where Tony Stark left off?”

“I have absolutely no idea,” Jack replies, rubbing a hand over his face; it’s been a very long week, and he gets the feeling it’s only going to get longer.

He realises that he’s lying; of course he knows.

-

The Iron Man suit is apparently locked up under the greatest security GD has, and only people with Nathan’s DNA can even access the room it’s in – Zane and Fargo are pissed about this, but frankly, Jack does not want Fargo anywhere near a suit with capabilities like that, it can only end badly – and Nathan is still walking around acting like nothing at all has happened. Eureka might be terrible for gossip and secrets, but it closes ranks on the outside world well enough, so there’s been no press or government officials showing up; no one from SHIELD either, Jack notes, with a guilty tug of his conscience. He’ll call soon, he promises himself; he’s just waiting to see how everything plays out, what Nathan plans to do, before he calls in a threat that isn’t one.

He’s pretty sure his grandmother would be with him on this, but Sharon says she’s not too lucid at the moment, and so Jack doesn’t call her and confess either.

The town is pretty much always looking out for weird, implausible, or downright insane things to happen, because they do happen with an alarming regularity, and it’s useful if you can see them coming before they crash into Main Street. But everyone seems to be looking upwards the whole time, tripping over their feet, stumbling into walls and trees and cars. Everyone seems to be waiting for Nathan to come roaring over the town in red and gold, loud and bright. But Nathan has been attending meetings and making phonecalls and walking around GD like nothing has changed; like he doesn’t intend to do anything about the legacy sent to him in a box that it took nearly three days to open – possibly security, probably Tony Stark’s idea of a joke – and that could change the world, again, even further than it already has.

Maybe Jack would let himself think that Nathan doesn’t want to become Iron Man, doesn’t want to pick up where Tony Stark left off, but he’s a damn good SHIELD agent, even now, playing sheriff in a small secret town no one’s heard of. His instincts haven’t ever let him down before, and he recognised the look in Nathan’s eyes; so while the rest of the town starts looking disappointed, and looking where they’re going once more, Jack doesn’t. He waits.

-

Zoe is sleeping over at Pilar’s tonight, and no one has tried to blow Eureka up for all of three days, and Jack is half-asleep on the couch in front of a football game when SARAH says: “you have a visitor, Sheriff.”

He hasn’t heard anyone at the door, and the security camera doesn’t show anything, but it’s been a while since SARAH malfunctioned, so he sticks his feet in some sneakers and heads outside.

Iron Man is standing just outside the bunker, glittering in the moonlight. Jack knows who it is, thinks he might even know how this conversation is about to go, but his heart still thuds in his chest a little as he walks over.

The faceplate lifts, and, yep, that’s Nathan, face a little sweaty, grin broad enough that this must still be new to him.

“So, you decided to be Iron Man after all,” Jack says, and is pleased that his voice doesn’t crack.

“And you haven’t sold me out to SHIELD,” Nathan replies.

 _Huh_ , Jack thinks. “Pretty sure I’m going to need to call Fury in a minute,” he says. “And how did you-”

“You’re good,” Nathan says, and it’s honest, no bite to it. “But I’m better.”

“You’re an ass,” Jack replies, cheerful, and Nathan laughs.

“Comes with the territory,” he says, and _launches_ into the night, a roar of technology, and then he’s gone.

Jack watches until he’s a glowing dot in the sky, and then gone. And then he smiles and scrubs a hand through his hair and goes inside to make a call and face the music.


End file.
